Established in 1924 by Mary V. Dodge, the Portland Youth Philharmonic is the oldest youth orchestra in the United States. In its 90th season, it’s made up of 109 musicians, which is considered a large group for the main orchestra. The larger Portland Youth Philharmonic Association, which supports two full symphony orchestras, a chamber orchestra, a wind ensemble, and a string ensemble, is in total made up of about 300 musicians, ranging from the ages of 7 to 23 and selected from a pool of applicants from across the region.

To learn more about the Portland Youth Philharmonic orchestra, tune into the five short audio pieces below:

Nicole Betancourt is a news/public affairs assistant at the Portland Radio Project. She can also be found making audio, video, and print media with Child Face Productions, a production duo she co-founded during Summer 2013. When not making media, Nicole loves to play sports and ride her bike to faraway places.